I get a little riled up when I see posts like this one that claim the death of long-accepted, tried and true marketing strategies.
When I read a headline like “lead generation is dead” my first thought is- wow, you had to go there? As a community of marketers cringing our way through a particularly painful election year, haven’t we seen enough shock-factor headline ploys from the media? I mean, even the weather channel is doing it. Haven’t we been baited enough times by headlines like these that ignite us into reading stories we soon realize have no value or basis?
I must disclose that I chose not to download this white paper for three reasons:
#1 – Just because you say something, doesn’t mean it’s true.
#2 – 40 pages is way past my time-threshold for leisure reading during business hours.
#3 – I’m a firm believer that leads will always be the goal of marketing. Always.
How qualified those leads should be depends on your business and how sales would like to accept them. As marketers, it’s our job to uncover that piece of the pipeline puzzle and tie it into our marketing strategy. It’s foundational to what we do and the value we provide to the organization.
Bottom line: Call it leads or call it pipeline. A rose by any other name would smell as sweet and will always need nurtured to bloom.
Oh, and don’t swap the cover on a book written 50 years ago and call it new.
Happy Monday. Don’t forget to stop and smell the roses.
